The Penitent
by morgan459
Summary: When a spoiled princess and a rebel without a cause run into each other one night on an abandoned road, sparks are sure to follow. LukeTracy AU.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So this story is pretty much entirely A/U based on the show last March when Tracy and Luke wondered what things would have been like had they met when they were teenagers. I always thought it was a pretty interesting question and with all the death and sadness on GH these days it seemed like a pretty good time for some light hearted fun. I know that Luke and Tracy both didn't come onto the show until the late 70s when they were both in their twenties but I've monkey-ed around with the timeline a little. Also, I'm not entirely certain how old Luke and Tracy are supposed to be on the show but Tony Geary and Jane Elliot are 59 and 60 respectively in real life and this story makes them both the same age.

Anyways, please read and review, I'd love to know what people think of this story.

**CHAPTER ONE**

_May, 1967_

It was around one thirty in the morning when the Cadillac came screaming down Miller's Lane. In the front seats was a young couple who were arguing loudly, they'd been driving along for about five minutes when the boy in the driver's seat slammed abruptly on the brakes, bringing the car to a screeching halt. Ten seconds later the passenger side door opened and the girl got out, slamming the door behind her. As soon as the hem of her skirt was clear of the car, she bent down and took off one of her high heels; she then threw the shoe at the rapidly departing vehicle, which by then was nothing but a brief flicker of brake lights at the end of the road.

'Well this is just perfect,' Tracy Quartermaine thought to herself as she walked gingerly down the abandoned road, her high heels were somehow managing to catch every single pit and crack in the miserably paved street and she just knew that she was five minutes away from a broken ankle. It was a miserable end to a thoroughly miserable evening. Her date, Travis Collins' mother Katherine and her mother Lila were on the DAR fundraising committee together, and Tracy had agreed to go out with the little cretin only after an express threat from her mother. The evening had started to go south almost as soon as it began, when Travis stepped on her foot on the way from her front door to his car. From there they went to dinner at some smarmy little Italian restaurant where Travis ordered calamari, which Tracy found disgusting and so she spent the entire time trying not to vomit while he tore his way through a plate of fried squid remains. Then at the movies he'd spilled Coke all over her brand new suede miniskirt which had only been saved by her quick thinking and twenty minutes under cold water in the bathroom sink.

But the highlight of the evening, really of her entire week, was when Travis decided to take a thirty minute drive up to Lover's Lane so they could go parking. As if. He was kind of cute in a James Dean kind of way which was the only reason that Tracy had agreed to go, hoping that if nothing else she'd wind up with a decent orgasm out of the date from hell, but it turned out that Travis was incompetent in that area as well. He bit her lips too hard, squeezed her breasts like he was checking a pair of melons for freshness, and the minute those overly moist fingers started creeping up her skirt Tracy knew that it wasn't going to be happening, not that night, not ever.

So Travis got insulted, and then, when he realized that she wasn't going to back down, he got angry. They were only about five minutes into their drive back to town when he started calling her a prick tease, and even though it wasn't the first time that Tracy had heard it she wasn't about to sit still and be insulted by some socially incompetent Neanderthal. She had just started to tell the ass what she really thought of him when he slammed on the brakes and threw her out of the car.

Just then the heel of Tracy's right shoe got caught in a particularly deep crack in the road pulling her out of her thoughts and she stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. Deciding that it would probably be safer for her to go without shoes than to break her ankle out here in the middle of nowhere she took her heels off and set off again, going even slower than she had been before. As she walked down the road, going towards what she hoped was civilization, Tracy's rage moved from Travis to her father Edward. After all, he was the one who moved the family from New York City to Port Charles, a town where culture and excitement came to die. She'd been perfectly happy boarding at Chatham Prep with all of her friends, and looking forward to an awesome Senior year when she'd found out that Edward expected her to make to make the move too. So here she was three months later, stuck in a town she hated, with no friends, walking down an abandoned road in the middle of nowhere, hoping against hope that she wouldn't step on a piece of glass and wake up in the morning with the plague.

Tracy had been walking for about fifteen minutes; building up a bigger and bigger head of steam with every step, when she heard what she thought was a motor coming up from behind her. She turned around and sure enough, she saw the single headlight of a motorcycle coming right towards her. Tracy was by no means a naïve girl, and she knew that accepting a ride from some strange motorcyclist was the best way to wind up some face on a milk carton, but it was getting close to two in the morning and whether this guy was going to wind up taking her home or locking her up in his sexual torture chamber/basement, there was no way she was walking another step.

New course of action firmly in mind Tracy turned, stood near the center of the road, and began jumping up and down, waving her hands, and shouting at the top of her lungs. To her shock the guy didn't even slow down, and Tracy realized that he was going to go right past her. Without even thinking about it Tracy took one of shoes out of her purse and aimed it his head then, with the perfect form that had lead the Chatham Prep Softball Team to the State Championships two years in a row, she wound up and let the shoe fly. It hit him square in the back of his helmet and Tracy watched with satisfaction as he fought to keep control over his bike. Not willing to risk being left behind again, she quickly hurried after him.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He began shouting once Tracy made it to the bike. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"What the hell is wrong with me?" Tracy shouted right back, "what the hell is wrong with you? Who leaves some helpless pedestrian by the side of the road in the middle of the night?"

"I'm sorry darlin'," he said, undoing his chin strap and taking the helmet off, "I'm not in the habit of picking up strange women on the side of the road."

With the helmet off, Tracy was surprised to see that the man was really a boy, if not her age then only a year or so older. He had close cropped, though outrageously curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and was, as near as she could tell in the darkness, actually pretty cute. Not that that mattered, Tracy was quick to assure herself, he was obviously not the sort of boy that Tracy would have anything to do with if this weren't an absolute emergency.

"Well, well, well…" The boy drawled, leaning back and taking Tracy in from head to toe, "I may have spoken too soon."

"Oh get over yourself," Tracy snapped, reaching out and slapping his shoulder, "I'm stranded out here and I need a ride into town."

"And what makes you think that I'm headed to Port Charles darlin'?" He asked, eyes twinkling, "There's a lot of open road out here for a man to explore."

"Oh please," Tracy scoffed, "spare me the rebel without a clue act. I know enough to know that there are no outlets off of this road without at least going through Port Charles first, so I'm not taking you out of your way. Besides," she broke off for a moment, mentally calculating the amount of cash she had in her purse, "I can give you forty bucks for your trouble."

The money got his attention in a hurry. "Well now you're speaking a language I understand Princess," He swung his leg back over the bike and started the engine. "Hop on."

Tracy eyed the bike disdainfully, waiting for the boy to at least show her how to get on. Motorcycles, though an element of any self respecting rich girl's fantasy life, were machines that she had absolutely no practical experience with.

"What's the matter darlin'?" The boy was grinning at her now, obviously enjoying her confusion, "are you waiting on an engraved invitation or something?"

"Oh shut up," Tracy snapped, "I go in my own time!"

"Anytime tonight sweetheart, it's your money."

Well Tracy would die before she asked this jackass for help. With a quick prayer that the seams on her skirt would hold, she climbed up behind him. To her surprise, he quickly took hold of her arms and wrapped them around his waist, forcing her to lean forward and rest her chin on his shoulder. He was just getting ready to take off when Tracy tapped him none too gently on the stomach.

"What the hell do you want?" it was late and he was getting damned tired of being beat up by the little princess.

"Give me the helmet." Tracy demanded.

"Why on Earth would I give you my helmet?" He asked incredulously.

"Because if I'm going to give you that forty bucks when we get to town it would be a good idea for you take every precaution to make sure that my brains don't wind up splattered somewhere along this road." Tracy was smug in her assertion, but it was her experience that for the right price people were willing to give you anything. Sure enough the boy's shoulder sagged in frustration and he handed the helmet to her, swearing under his breath throughout the entire transaction. "Thank you." She chirped brightly, securing the helmet securely under her chin.

"You ready?" He didn't even wait for an answer before kicking the motorcycle into gear. If Tracy hadn't had the sense to wrap her arms around him the second he started asking the question, she would have wound up on her back sprawled in the middle of the road, helmet and all.

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They reached Main Street about twenty minutes later and the bike came to a screeching halt.

"Ok sweetheart," her driver announced, "this is your stop."

"Are you kidding me?" Tracy asked, even as she dismounted, "This is at least ten minutes from my house!"

"That wasn't part of the deal darlin', you wanted me to drive you into Port Charles and here we are." He stopped and pointed to one of the 'Welcome to Port Charles' banners hanging from the lamp post.

"You know what?" Tracy asked, ripping the helmet off of her head and throwing it at him, just the slightest bit disappointed when he caught it without any obvious difficulty, "I wouldn't ride another minute with an insufferable roughneck like you! Just take your damn money and get out of my sight!" She dug the money out of her purse and held it out towards him.

Her biker boy looked at Tracy, and under the glow of the streetlights she was disgusted to realize that he was much cuter than she had assumed, his eyes which had been dancing with amusement just a few seconds ago grew dark with something Tracy didn't recognize. Correction, with something Tracy wanted to pretend she didn't recognize, but the minute he got off the bike Tracy knew exactly what he was coming for.

"L-l-look," she stammered, backing up rapidly but with no ready avenue of escape, her shoes and purse dropped out of her hands as they went slack with nerves, "I'm really sorry about yelling at you like that." Just then her back hit a wall and all hope for escape was gone.

In just a few seconds he was right there in front of her and suddenly running away was the last thing on Tracy's mind. When he bent down and kissed her it was like nothing else Tracy had ever experienced, his lips ghosted over top of hers and she immediately opened her mouth to get more of him. His tongue thrust into her mouth and she eagerly returned the favor. The whole thing was happening too fast, too soon for Tracy to have any sort of plan of attack, so she grabbed a hold of his waist with both well manicured hands and pulled him closer trying to find some way, any way of reliving the pressure building up inside of her.

"Oh God," he gasped, breaking their mouths to draw in some much needed air. Tracy worried for about two seconds that he was going to pull away before his mouth was back on hers, just as insistent as it had been moments before. Her brain was sending out all sorts of 'this is bad, bad, oh so totally immediate shipment to a Swiss boarding school bad!' messages, but this was by far the most fun she'd had since her father had decided that the family was moving to Port Charles. Her skirt was tight against her thighs, keeping her from opening her legs as wide as she might like to, so Tracy reached down with her right hand and pulled the skirt up closer to her hips. Biker boy must have liked that because he suddenly reached down and grabbed her by the waist, lifting her up high and she immediately caught on and wrapped her legs around her waist as he pushed their bodies further against the wall, never once breaking the connection between their mouths.

"Look, I don't care what you say man, there is no way that PCH is gonna loose that baseball game on Saturday. The guys at Saint Joe's have only won three games all season and one of those was cause Filmore High had to pull out of the game…"

Tracy and the boy heard the two teenagers only moments before they would have been discovered. Tracy's blouse was half undone and her miniskirt was around her hips and there wasn't enough time for her to get down and make herself presentable so the boy kept his hold on her hips and moved them both further into the shadows, hoping that the group would just walk past them and not notice anything amiss.

Tracy had no interest in getting caught either so she didn't try to object to biker boy's sudden maneuvering. She linked her legs around his waist and tucked her head down in the crook of his neck in an effort to make them appear as small as possible. She couldn't ignore the erection pressing into upper thigh but she did her best not to react to it.

The two friends passed by Tracy and her mystery boy almost as soon as the latter pair heard them come up and Tracy quickly pushed against the boy, silently demanding that he put her down. It took her only a few seconds to re-button her shirt and pull her skirt down all the while she glared at the boy leaning against the wall next to her, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

"Well," Tracy began shakily, finding it difficult to locate her normal haughty composure when her lips felt positively swollen and she was relatively certain that if it wasn't so dark he would be able to see her nipples poking through her bra and blouse, "thanks for the ride."

"Anytime darlin'." The boy was still leaning against the wall, smirking like the cat that had nearly eaten the goddamn canary.

Looking at his smile and the spark in his eyes Tracy could feel herself starting to drift back towards the mysterious boy but she gave herself a mental slap and began walking quickly back towards the bike a few feet away. Bending down to pick up the heels that she had kicked off when they'd first started to make out. Near the shoes Tracy saw the money that she'd dropped when biker boy first started coming near her. She turned around to give him the money, expecting to see him right behind her but the alleyway was empty. As she slipped her shoes on Tracy looked at the twenties in her hand, briefly considering keeping the money and putting it back in her purse. On the other hand she considered, bending down yet again to pick up her bag, he had just given her the best time she'd had since moving to Port Charles three months ago. Besides, she reasoned to herself as she placed the money on the motorcycle's seat before turning around and heading home, he could certainly use the money to buy himself a new shirt and a decent haircut.

From in his position in the shadows at the far end of the alley Luke Spencer watched as the Princess put the money down on the seat of his bike and took off down the road. There was a guy he knew in his neighborhood who would buy him a six pack for a couple of bucks extra and he planned on taking the beer up into the hills the next afternoon and doing a little fishing. Not a bad haul at all for taking a chance on an angry little Princess with a wicked fast ball. In fact, Luke chuckled to himself, rubbing the angry feeling mark on his neck that he knew would be a hickey by the morning, he might never know Princess' name, but he wasn't going to be forgetting this night for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_The Next Morning_

"Luke!" The girl behind the voice might have been young but there were no problems with the power of her projection. Her voice made down the hallway and into Luke's bedroom with no problems.

"Luke!" She shouted again. "I made breakfast and if you don't get down here now I'm throwing it away!"

"All right, all right, all right!" Luke shouted back after he managed to drag his head out from underneath his pillow. "I'll be right there! Don't you dare do anything with that food!"

It was nearly eleven in the morning when Tracy finally woke up. The early afternoon sunlight was streaming through her curtains, and she spent long, lazy moments lying in bed watch sun-lit designs chase their way across her ceiling.

When the growling in her stomach got too loud to be ignored, Tracy rolled out of bed and made her way to her attached bathroom. The water in her shower was blissfully hot and within a few minutes all of the cobwebs of the previous night had drifted away. Standing under the spray, Tracy looked down at her chest and was shocked to see a hand shaped bruise forming near the top of her right hip. She shut her eyes for a moment and allowed the memories to take over; pressed against the wall outside of McCalls, her legs spread as wide as her suede skirt would allow, wrapped around biker boy's waist. How intense, but entirely necessary the pain of his fingers were as they dug into her waist when he pressed their weight against the bricks. She began re-imagining the feeling of his tongue as it teased its way across the seam of her lips and a deep pang of arousal pulsed low in her abdomen.

Cursing herself for lusting after some low-rent mystery man, Tracy quickly turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She had no plans for the day except studying and starting a draft of her medieval history paper, so she threw on an old pair of jeans and her favorite red blouse. A quick comb through her newly shortened auburn hair and she was finally ready to go in search of some food.

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Down the hall in the kitchen Bobbie Spencer stood on a tall stepstool while she stretched and tried to reach a box of cereal in an upper cupboard. Standing on her tip toes she just tall enough to grab the box of Fruit Loops.

Luke walked into the kitchen just in time to see his little sister suspended in an almost impossible position. "Barbara Jean!"

Bobbie nearly fell at the sound of her brother's voice but she managed to keep her balance and got off of the stool with little difficulty. "Jesus Christ Luke!" She swore at him as she jumped down. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Hey," Luke bent down and swiped the box of cereal out of Bobbie's hands. "You know better than that." He reminded her, putting the box down on the table. "Come and get me if you can't reach something, I don't want you hurting yourself."

"I'm ten Luke," Bobbie reminded him as she swiped the box from the table and turned back to the counter where she poured the cereal into a waiting bowl, "not two. And I wouldn't have had to be up there if someone," she glared at him, "hadn't put the cereal on the top shelf yesterday."

Luke's face turned red as he flashed back to putting the cereal up in the top shelves the other afternoon. "Sorry about that baby sis," he muttered, affectionately ruffling Bobbie's hair with his left hand.

"No problem," Bobbie answered around a spoonful of cereal. "There are scrambled eggs in the pan on the stove."

"You're an angel kid," Luke went over to the cupboards and got a plate before turning to the stove, "where is Aunt Ruby? Did you make all this yourself?" Ruby and Bobbie had both been asleep when Luke snuck back into the house last night, but his Aunt had been around when he got home from school the day before so Luke assumed that she'd hung around this morning.

"Aunt Ruby supervised, but she got a phone call from some guy like twenty minutes ago and she had to take off. She said to tell you she'll be home by dinner time." Bobbie's bright red hair kept falling into her eyes while she tried to eat so she paused for a second and braided it back away from her face.

"Huh," Luke grumbled as he sat down with his food. He could just imagine kind of mess their aunt might be getting herself into. They'd only moved to Port Charles because Ruby had had one too many run-ins with the local police back in Florida and they'd decided to bust up her prostitution ring for good. Ruby had somehow managed to scam her way into a secretarial job at General Hospital and she swore to Luke that she'd gone straight but he still wasn't entirely convinced. There was enough money coming in to keep the family in food and clothes and living in a three bedroom apartment in a nicer neighborhood than the one they'd lived in back in Florida but Ruby was still getting odd phone calls and she wouldn't tell Luke what it was all about.

"Can I have three bucks?"

Bobbie's question startled Luke out his thoughts. "What do you need three dollars for squirt?" He purposely made his voice sound incredulous but Luke knew he could certainly afford it thanks to the money he'd gotten from the dark haired princess he'd picked up on his bike the night before.

"Well there's a bunch of girls in my class who want to go to a double feature at the movies this afternoon. And Nancy Carter lives in the apartment building up the street so she and her mom can give me a ride but I need money for the tickets and food. Please?" Bobbie pleaded, turning gigantic blue eyes on her big brother.

Luke scowled at his sister before smiling and agreeing to give her the money. If there was one positive that had come out of their move it was that Bobbie finally got a chance at a normal life in a school where the kids didn't know her as 'the whore's niece.' In fact, Luke had to admit that he too found it pretty nice going to school without their Aunt's reputation hanging over them. Plus it gave him all sorts of interesting opportunities to create a bad reputation of his very own.

Knowing that her father insisted on a strict 8:30 am breakfast time, Tracy skipped the dining room and headed straight for the kitchen, praying that Cook was in a good mood and wouldn't chase her out. As it turned out Cook was away at the Farmer's Market, so she was able to make a quick turkey sandwich without any interruptions. Her blissful meal was quickly cut short by the sound of heavy feet clomping through the doorway.

"Get out creep." Tracy didn't have to look up to know that her older brother Alan was standing in the doorway, and she didn't take a single break in her eating rhythm to order him out.

Tracy and her brother might have been physically similar, but their personalities were as different as the day was long. They both had athletic builds, Tracy from field hockey and softball, Alan from baseball and basketball, dark hair, and pale skin that tended to burn at the mere mention of the word sun. Where Tracy was about as welcoming as a particularly prickly cactus, Alan was everybody's good-time boy, captain of the basketball team, vice-president of his class at college, and his graduating class' valedictorian. Tracy was the focused one, with her rather myopic determination to someday succeed their father as CEO of E.L.Q while Alan didn't really care what he was going to do with life after graduation.

"Think fast!" Alan teased, whipping the baseball in his hand in Tracy's direction. Her hand was up and the ball was caught all without Tracy ever once breaking her chewing stride.

"Knock it off jerk!" Tracy snapped, throwing the ball back to her brother, "can't you see that I'm trying to eat here?"

Alan dumped all of his baseball equipment outside of the door and came in. Grabbing an apple from a bowl on the counter, he sat in the seat next to hers and started chomping away noisily. "So where were you this morning?"

"God, could you at least swallow?"

"Did Crazy Man Collins keep you out all night?" This time Alan made sure to swallow, extra noisily, just for Tracy's benefit. "I mean," He continued, "I got in at two and you still weren't in your room."

Tracy couldn't think of a good way of telling her brother that that was because at two in the morning she'd been pinned up against a brick wall on Elm Street getting dry humped by some stranger.

"I mean," If Alan was put off by his sister's continued silence it didn't stop him, "I knew that you have no standards, but I didn't think old Travis had it in him."

"Can't you just shut up?" This time when Tracy reached out and hit him she wasn't playing around. "All I want to do is eat and you come in here with your sweaty clothes, and your open mouthed eating, and your dirty mind--"

"Hey don't blame me if I speak the truth," Alan protested, "It's not my fault that you act like a tramp."

Tracy jumped out of her chair and turned on her brother, "oh that is it you little shit!"

"Tracy Samantha Quartermaine!"

It was her mother's voice, those smooth and cultured tones that only rose under the direst of circumstances. It was just Tracy's luck that on a day that was already going to crap, now she was about to get read the riot act.

"Tracy," her mother continued, breezing into the kitchen, "I have spoken to you time and time again about using profanity."

Alan murmured something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "you're in trouble," and Tracy resisted the urge to hit him again. Mother certainly wouldn't take kindly to that.

Lila Morgan Quartermaine was everything Tracy wanted to be and wasn't. Her mother was slender and blonde where Tracy was muscled by years of field hockey and softball and depressingly brunette. Lila had a smile that made most people feel right at home, Tracy had a scowl that tended to frighten them away. To Tracy it seemed as though she had spent most of her life trying to emulate her mother, but all she had succeeded in doing was alienating more and more people away from her.

"Apologize to your brother Tracy." Lila's voice never raised, but her pale blue eyes were piercingly steady and her foot beat a patient tattoo.

"But mother," Tracy protested, "it wasn't my fault! Alan started the whole thing!" Tracy didn't know why she was arguing, her mother would still say that Alan was right and she was wrong. There were times when she was convinced that Alan would have to go on some sort of homicidal car-jacking spree before his halo would be tarnished in their parents' eyes.

"I don't want to hear excuses Tracy." Honestly, there were times when Lila didn't believe that she would ever get her oldest daughter's temper under control. Every time she spoke to Tracy there would be promises to do better and then it seemed like the minute she turned her back Tracy was going off on someone else. "Apologize to your brother immediately and then come see me in the library. I need to talk to you about your date last night." Lila left the kitchen without another word and headed towards the library.

Shit. Tracy had hoped that she'd at least have a couple of hours to get her story together before getting called on the carpet. Somehow she didn't think that Lila would respond well to the story as was.

"I'm waiting Tracy," Alan's smirk was out in full force. It always amazed him how easy it was to get Tracy going.

"Eat dirt and die you little shit," Tracy hissed on her way out of the door, "just wait until I get done with Mother."

Alan didn't say anything, but of course he didn't really have to. Tracy was about to get her ass handed to her and all he'd had to do was keep his mouth shut.

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Luke walked outside his apartment building, it was an excellent day he decided, there was an ice cold six pack in his backpack, the sun was shining and he was about to get on his bike and enjoy an afternoon fishing on the river. Bobbie was off to the movies and wouldn't be back until nearly five, so he had plenty of time to do his thing before getting back.

"Hey Spencer!" Luke turned around and saw Jimmy O'Donnell walking towards him. Jimmy was only a few years older for Luke but he was a native of the neighborhood and already ran numbers for Louis Ryan a small time mobster who fronted a couple of small bars in the neighborhood.

"Hey Jimmy," Luke acknowledged, reaching out and shaking the older man's head. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to thank you for that little favor you did for me the other day." Jimmy lowered his voice but his face was all smiles as he looked around, nodding to the neighbors out on their porches enjoying the beautiful afternoon.

The 'favor' Luke had done involved delivering an envelope Jimmy had given him to a local construction company a few blocks over. Luke had done it without question, not even thinking to look inside the envelope. He'd run around with enough shady characters back in Florida to know that blind obedience would take him far while curiosity would only bring trouble. "It was no problem," he told Jimmy, keeping his voice casual. "Anything I can do to help out."

"Well Mr. Ryan wanted me to let you know that he appreciated it. You do good work kid, I'll be sure to bring your name up the next time we need a favor." When Jimmy reached out again to shake Luke's hand he slipped a twenty to the younger boy.

Jimmy was gone before Luke could say anything more. In only a week he'd made sixty dollars just by walked an envelope to a bar and giving a beautiful girl a ride. Clearly the gods had chosen to smile on Lucas Lorenzo Spencer. Whistling a happy tune to himself he tucked the money into his back pocket, got on the bike, and raced out of Port Charles.

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By the time Tracy reached the doors of the library her stomach was in knots, but it was another day and therefore it was time for another lecture on what an embarrassment she was to the Quartermaine name. It didn't matter if it was her mother's honeyed words or her father's angry bluster, either way she knew she'd leave the room feeling like an even bigger failure than she'd entered it as.

"Come sit on with me on the sofa sweetheart," her mother called out to Tracy without even turning around to confirm that her daughter had indeed entered the room.

Once Tracy was seated and settled Lila offered her a cup of tea which Tracy accepted without a word. Assured that her daughter was ready Lila took a deep breath, "Tracy," she began, "I received a very upsetting visit from Penelope Collins this morning."

'Oh God,' Tracy thought, 'Travis' mother actually came here? What did she say?'

"Penelope told me," Lila continued, "that Travis didn't come home until nearly two-thirty in the morning. His clothes were disheveled and he was sporting the beginnings of a black eye."

"Look Mama," Tracy interrupted, "I can explain--"

"I don't want to hear it Tracy!" Lila immediately regretted her explosion of temper, but there were times when talking to her daughter felt like running against a brick wall at full speed. "We have had these conversations time and time again," she continued, not waiting to listen to Tracy's excuses, "you are a Quartermaine, Tracy. You cannot behave like some common harlot."

Tracy listened to her mother's words and felt the heat rising in her cheeks. She spent so much time trying to be perfect. To have the right friends, wear the right clothes, say all the right things, but somehow it was never enough. For a brief moment she hated her mother, hated the fact that it all came so easy to Lila; hated that Lila couldn't understand why she just couldn't turn on a switch and be a perfect little automaton. Almost as soon as the feeling bubbled up inside of her Tracy pushed them back down. Mother was right, she was a Quartermaine, and 'I tried' just wasn't good enough.

"Please Mother," Tracy could feel tears of frustration rising in the back of her throat, but she spoke slowly and remained in complete emotional control, "Travis and I didn't do anything." As she began to recount the story Tracy found herself blushing furiously and she wished the sofa would open and swallow her whole before she had to tell her mother all the gory details. "He wanted to, I didn't, so he got pissed off and he was yelling at me and I was yelling back and then I got angry and then--"

"Yes Tracy?" Lila prodded.

"And then I hit him. That's where he got the black eye."

"T-racy," Lila didn't have to yell, she didn't even have to raise her voice in the slightest. All it took was just the slightest change in her inflection and Tracy could tell that her mother was deeply disappointed.

"What was I supposed to do Mama?" Tracy knew she should just shut up and take the verbal dress down but she was still pissed off at Alan and so she let the leash off of her temper just the slightest bit, "he was calling me a slut! I wasn't going to let him get away with that!"

"Well that's what boys call girls who agree to go to places like 'Lovers Lane' Tracy!" Now Lila was getting truly upset, "if you don't show that you have respect for yourself you can't expect anyone else to give it to you!"

"Wait a minute!" Tracy jumped up from the sofa, emotional energy demanding that pace around the room, "I only went on that date because you insisted Mama! I didn't even like him!"

Lila didn't stand to face her daughter, but she raised her voice to counter Tracy's rising tirade. "Don't you dare try to place the responsibility for this on me Tracy!"

Shocked out of her emotional flameout by her mother's outburst, Tracy stopped pacing and stood still in front of Lila.

"I asked you," Lila broke off for a moment and took a deep breath, when she continued to speak her voice was back to its normal dulcet tones, "I asked you to go to a movie with the Travis, to have dinner with him if he asked. At no point during the night were you supposed to go off on some sort of assignation with the boy!" Lila stopped briefly and drew another breath. "As you know Tracy, Michael Dillon does a lot of work with your father and Penelope has been instrumental in helping me make the right social connections since we moved to Port Charles, and now, thanks to some very stupid decisions on your part, a tenuous relationship between our families has been put in jeopardy."

Tracy felt the guilt rising up from her abdomen. This was the way it always went; she'd make a rash decision, get caught up in some impossible situation, loose her temper, and then later when she was standing back surveying the damage, she'd always regret her choices. With a cool head Tracy was more than capable of looking backwards and seeing the road not taken, but in the moment, in that moment… "I'm sorry Mama," she said simply, "I'll go call Travis and apologize if you think it will help smooth things over."

"That won't be necessary," Lila said, waving her hand as if to dismiss the entire idea, "Travis has his own behavior to be ashamed of. In fact," she decided, standing up from the sofa, "I think I'll take a trip over to the Dillon's and have a little talk with Penelope. I'm sure that between the two of us we can lay the whole situation to rest."

With that Tracy knew that their talk was finished. Lila would go over to the Dillon mansion and make it clear to Penelope that she felt that both children had shown an appalling lack of judgment the night before. She would express her regret that Tracy had struck Travis, but make it clear that if she or her daughter heard anything further on the subject they would not hesitate to expose Travis' own less than stellar behavior, and no one would want that to happen now would they?

For Tracy's part she would be on her best behavior for the next few days, hoping that everything would blow over and the whole messy evening would be dead and buried before her father heard anything on the subject. It would be all the ammunition Daddy needed to start the whole boarding school argument again and Tracy was desperate to be able to stay in the states until she graduated and could finally go off to college.

"Well if that's everything Mama I'm going to go work on my history paper." Tracy's face was red with embarrassment but her voice was strong and she turned to walk away without betraying even the slightest hint of weakness.

"Oh Tracy," her mother called out.

Tracy turned around again, not sure what she wanted to hear.

"Please remember to dress for dinner." Lila said simply, moving around the back of the sofa to collect her pocketbook in preparation of going out. "You're father is bringing a few business associates of his over for dinner and I would appreciate it if you'd try to look your best. We'll be eating precisely at six; please don't be late like you were for breakfast this morning."

Well, Tracy had not known what she wanted from her mother, but it certainly hadn't been that. "Of course Mama." She said quietly before going back upstairs to spend the rest of the afternoon in her room.


End file.
